Ray McAnally
Ray McAnally ( born March 30, 1926 in Buncrana, Ireland, † June 15, 1989 in County Wicklow, Ireland) was an Irish actor. Special recognition he reached with the films Mission, My Left Foot and the film adaptation of Alan Platers A Very British Coup.
Life and career
Ray McAnally was 1926 in Buncrana, a town on the Inishowen Peninsula Ireland born as the son of a bank clerk in County Donegal. At the age of 18 he attended the St. Eunan 's College in Letterkenny, left the seminary but after a short time, when he realized that the priesthood was not his calling. Instead, he went in 1947 to the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, where he met the actress Ronnie Masterson and married shortly thereafter.
Together they founded the Old Quay Productions, with the they performed a number of classical pieces during the 1960s and - 70s. His theater debut was in 1962 with A Nice Bunch of Flowers Cheap. When George McAnally joined Edward Albee's Who 's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? on the side of Constance Cumings at the Piccadilly Theatre on.
Although his face was well known through television, where he regularly in crime series such as The Avengers and melon, one occurred in a Suitcase and Strange Report, he remained mostly faithful to the theater and played mainly at the Abbey Theatre. In the last ten years of his life his work was acknowledged in film and television through various prices. For his portrayal of Cardinal Altamirano in mission he received a BAFTA Award and for his role as Richard Thomas Pym in the television miniseries A Perfect Spy based on the novel by John le Carré an RTS Television Award.
In 1988, he won a second BAFTA Award for his performance in A Very British Coup. This film also earned him a Jacob 's Award. In the same year he played the role of Jack the Ripper in the eponymous television filming alongside Michael Caine. In his last year, he played the father of the painter Christy Brown in the Oscar- winning film My Left Foot, for which he posthumously his third BAFTA Award in 1990.
On June 15, 1989, at the age of 63 years, Ray McAnally died of a heart attack at his house that he (at that time he was for several years by Ronnie Masterson divorced) lived with actress Britta Smith. McAnally was the father of four children. His son Aongus followed in his footsteps and became television announcer, his daughter Maire joined the Order of the Dominicans.